Vineland election tightens

Nov. 15, 2012

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VINELAND — The City Council race is tightening, with a new candidate making the top 10 list of contenders who could advance to a runoff election next month, according to updated but unofficial vote counts released by Cumberland County officials Wednesday.

The results are incomplete. However, with the release Wednesday of unofficial results for more than 1,700 vote-by-mail ballots cast by Vineland residents, candidate Angela Calakos has picked up enough votes to leapfrog running mate and 10th-place finisher Carlos Villar. In preliminary results released on Election Day, Calakos had missed the cutoff and was in 11th place; that spot is now held by Maritza Gonzalez.

The top 10 vote-getters in the Nov. 6 council election will move on to a runoff Dec. 18, where all five council seats will be filled.

The updated numbers showed little change in the mayoral race, where incumbent Robert Romano and challenger Ruben Bermudez appear to be the two candidates who have secured enough votes to advance to a runoff. Both men picked up a few hundred more votes in the mail-in ballots.

All of the results are incomplete and unofficial because they do not reflect potentially hundreds of provisional ballots that aren’t yet counted, and perhaps more vote-by-mail ballots. Deadlines for when ballots are due to elections officials were extended statewide after Hurricane Sandy.

“I’m really excited and I hope that I get to serve the city of Vineland,” Calakos said Wednesday when she heard about the latest totals. “That was my goal, and I would be happy to work with anyone. That’s the way I feel.”

Calakos is a running mate on mayoral candidate Perry Barse’s slate. Gonzalez is a running mate of Bermudez.

The new numbers also show just one of Bermudez’s council running mates, John Procopio, in the top 10 for the runoff as of now.

Bermudez’s strategy to win the runoff is to court voters from the unsuccessful mayoral campaigns of Douglas A. Albrecht and Barse.

Bermudez said he will wait and see if the numbers change again in favor of his council team. “It’s too early to tell. I want to wait and see what happens,” he said.

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Barse said he was cautious about the change in the number of votes for his running mates. “The team has strategies, and I’m going to support them,” he said.

This is the first time Vineland will hold a runoff vote in December. Previously, the municipal elections were held in May and runoffs, if necessary, in June.

“This is all new ground, so there aren’t any experts on what to expect,” Barse said. “It’s about hard work and who gets the vote out. There are no experts out there.”

Romano did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The new vote totals include 1,727 mail-in ballots whose results had not been announced until Wednesday, after The Daily Journal filed an Open Public Records Act request seeking their immediate release.

In the latest tally, just two votes separate Gonzalez (11th place) and Villar (10th), another Barse running mate.

All the numbers are being reported by the Cumberland County Clerk’s Office and have not been certified. The deadline for certification is Nov. 21.

As of Wednesday, the top five council candidates in order were Mayra Arroyo, Maria Laboy, Peter F. Coccaro III, Nelson Thompson and Antonio Romero, all of whom are Romano’s running mates.

The next five, in order, are Anthony R. Fanucci, Paul F. Spinelli, John A. Procopio, Calakos and Villar. All except Procopio are Barse’s running mates.

While the new totals show increased numbers for mayoral candidates, they did not change the candidates’ ranking. Romano gained 557 votes and his count now stands at 8,306 votes. Bermudez gained 387 votes, bringing his total to 5,286.

Going into the runoff, candidates on all teams have said the focus of their strategy would be to work hard to encourage people to vote in person or by mail.

Because the runoff date is so close to major December holidays, candidates are concerned about voter apathy during a month that is traditionally more about vacations and shopping than elections.

“I am looking forward to working very hard for my team in the upcoming election,” Barse said. “Its like any other election. You make contact with as many people as they can, one-on-one.”

The runoff had been scheduled for Dec. 4, but was changed Tuesday because of the statewide delay in certifying results. Coccaro, the current council president, said he is concerned about the new date.

“It’s an annoyance to people who truly want to vote,” he said. “Now they really have to set aside time away from their families during the holidays.”

Coccaro said he has no concerns about the latest changes in the names that could be on the council runoff ballot.

“I can tell you the Romano team will continue to work vigilantly and hard and continue campaigning to get our team members elected,” Coccaro said.

He praised the Bermudez and Barse teams’ council candidates for running clean campaigns. “Excluding Mr. Barse and Mr. Bermudez, who did not run clean campaigns,” he added.

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